DelegitimisationThe BDS Campaign Against Israel
Israel's detractors in Britain are waging a vicious, often underhand, war against the democratic United Nations member state of Israel. Strongly emotive language is employed, which portrays Israel as exhibiting the characteristics of some of history's most genocidal and despotic regimes. What this language claims to portray, however, is a long way from the reality of life in Israel and the disputed Palestinian territories.
In reality, the boycotts, divestment and sanctions campaign in Britain has failed in its aims to stem trade between Britain and Israel (particularly with the so-called "illegal settlements") and to force major economic players to stop investing in or operating in the country (for example, the campaign against Veolia, a participant in the construction of the Jerusalem Light Rail Transit system). What it does, however, is to poison minds already predisposed to believe the worst about Israel and to draw into the same web those who are ignorant of what actually goes on in Israel but simply believe what they read or are told without checking facts for themselves.
In our major article on the BDS campaign, we expose some of the BDS campaign's tactics and participants. You can download the article as a complete pdf document here (459kb).
Summary
According to BDS websites the BDS Movement consists of Boycotts, which target products and companies (Israeli and international) that profit from the "violation of Palestinian rights" as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, Divestment, which means targeting corporations "complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights" and pressuring them to stop investing in Israel and Sanctions, which are an essential part of demonstrating international disapproval for a country’s actions. "Israel’s membership of various diplomatic and economic forums provides both an unmerited veneer of respectability and material support for its crimes."
The BDS campaign is anti-Semitic in both intent and effect, primarily in its double standards in singling out Israel amongst all the nations of the world for censure. see appendix A There have been no BDS campaigns against countries which genuinely violate human rights such as Sri Lanka, Iran, North Sudan or China. It would be unthinkable for a group in the UK to call for boycotts and sanctions against oil producing nations such as Saudi Arabia despite their deplorable human rights records.
Censure is, moreover, based on wild allegations against Israel of racism, apartheid, colonialism, imperialism, war crimes, genocide, human rights abuses, carrying out a siege of Gaza and the deliberate targeting of civilians - all of which can be shown to be false. The campaign is immoral and uses unsavoury tactics mainly in omitting one whole side of the story. Nevertheless it helps to discredit and isolate Israel in international forums and is, therefore, an arm of the campaign to delegitimise Israel.
Sadly the BDS campaign is a big distraction from the real problems of the world and particularly those of the Middle East – gender apartheid, police states, medieval sharia law, persecution of Christians, lack of free speech, torture, detention and economic stagnation. However, the rulers of these countries distract their people from their real internal problems by focusing on Israel and blaming their problems on its supposed demeanours.
Boycotts in the case of Israel and the territories are part of the problem, not part of the solution.! Instead of supporting Israel which is on the front line of the Islamic/far left war against western civilization, the BDS campaign tries to isolate Israel and set the rest of the world on supposedly higher moral ground. Without moral clarity we shall lose the battle for our survival against Islam and the BDS campaign will have contributed to our demise.